I wanted this week to look at the Global 100 survey, which is issued in the late fall each year. To some extent, the Global is an anomalous survey for us. Our surveys generally rank law firms either by revenue (the Am Law surveys) or by number of attorneys (the NLJ surveys). The Global 100 accounts for both perspectives and therefore ranks, somewhat to our amusement, between 115 and 120 firms each year.
The annual Global survey has now been done seven times It was the Global 50 from 1998 (FY 1997) through 2000 (FY 1999) , and has been the Global 100 since then.
During the first three years, when the Global survey took in fifty firms ranked by revenue, there were only U.S. firms and U.K. firms on the list; each of the three years contained forty-two U.S. firms and eight U.K. firms. The expansion of the list to one hundred firms ranked by revenue has led to a predictable broadening. In the first three years of the larger list, firms from Canada and Australia were represented. The trend continues: this year they were joined by firms from The Netherlands and France, the first continental firms to have joined the revenue list. In the four years that the Global has ranked one hundred firms by revenue, U.S. and U.K. law firms have claimed 96 (2001), 97 (2002), 96 (2003) and 94 (2004) of the one hundred spots.
In what is perhaps more than anything a reflection of “revenue per lawyer” realities, Australian, Canadian and continental firms are over represented on the rank by number of attorneys list, while U.S. law firms are underrepresented. The survey gives additional details for profits per partner and geographic distribution.
The Global 100 article can be found through ALM's Lists & Rankings site: http://www.law.com/career_center/lists_rankings.shtml
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